Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Why?-- Economic considerations? Political constraints? Engineering shortcomings in design, errors, under-estimations, etc?
It was not a "brown out." It was a rolling blackout that occurred on one record-breaking day of heat. On that day a wind generation plant went down, a natural gas plant went down, and shortly before the heat wave started another gas plant had gone offline. The heat wave hit other western states too, so they didn't have any excess power to sell to California.
The state is in the middle of transitioning from traditional power towards a target of 100% non-fossil fuel. That makes it harder to manage the generation because the mix is in flux.
There were two underestimations, in my non-expert opinion. One is the state should have a little bit more reserve capacity than they have to deal with extreme weather like this. They cut it too close. The other factor they underestimated is how climate change will make these extreme heat waves more severe and more frequent.
This was a one day fluke event. I expect that the various authorities will make adjustments to help prevent a repeat occurrence.
CA born and raised. I remember the rolling blackouts 20 years ago. The official reasoning IIRC was too much demand and not enough supply due to caps and such. I recall Enron being involved, too, and hoopla surrounding them artificially creating a shortage.
People can say what they want about California and the politics and all, it's the fashionable thing to do after all. California does have a political system that I believe it shares with only a handful of other States that gives more power to the people than some may realize, allowing for special elections if there are enough public interest (signatures). In this example, shortly after Gov. Davis was reelected during the energy crisis in the early 2000s the people of California demanding a recall of the election, got enough signatures to hold a special election, and kicked him out of office.
We can always ask the nonsense question "But what if...." ...Like "But what if Lincoln had been a transvestite and The South had more steel mills?" He wasn't and they didn't. No need to ask.
It was not a "brown out." It was a rolling blackout that occurred on one record-breaking day of heat. On that day a wind generation plant went down, a natural gas plant went down, and shortly before the heat wave started another gas plant had gone offline. The heat wave hit other western states too, so they didn't have any excess power to sell to California.
The state is in the middle of transitioning from traditional power towards a target of 100% non-fossil fuel. That makes it harder to manage the generation because the mix is in flux.
There were two underestimations, in my non-expert opinion. One is the state should have a little bit more reserve capacity than they have to deal with extreme weather like this. They cut it too close. The other factor they underestimated is how climate change will make these extreme heat waves more severe and more frequent.
This was a one day fluke event. I expect that the various authorities will make adjustments to help prevent a repeat occurrence.
NO the wind generation plant did NOT go down....it wasn't windy that day. And NO a natural gas plant did not go down. The Democrats in California CLOSED the natural gas plants in California and for good measure they also closed the nuclear power plants in the state, while replacing the capacity with wind and solar....and then the wind didn't blow and the sun went down.
Yep, the other western states did not have power to sell to California. My rural county in eastern Washington sells our "excess" electricity to California. In late August the three county owned dams on the Columbia River do not generate enough electricity to send south. But hey, thanks for the 125 million dollar fiber-optic internet system you guys paid for in my county with excess electricity sales.
Nope, the mix is NOT in flux. California politicians, the Democratic Party mis-manged your energy resources.
You bet, California needs more reserve capacity. Probably need to build it in California and stop depending on hydro and wind resources from the Pacific Northwest, nuclear from Arizona, or coal from the inter-mountain states.
Nope, not a one day fluke event. Looking at the climate history of California over the past 10,000 years the weather in California has been abnormally WET and thereby relatively cool in the past 100 years. The drought in Calfornia a 1000 years ago will happen again. These are the best days in a 100 years......prepare for the future.
NO the wind generation plant did NOT go down....it wasn't windy that day. And NO a natural gas plant did not go down.
"The California Independent System Operator (ISO) declared a Stage 3 Electrical Emergency at 6:28 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 15, due to increased electricity demand,the unexpected loss of a 470-megawatt (MW) power plant, and loss of nearly 1,000 MW of wind power." -- direct quote from CAISO.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 509
Nope, not a one day fluke event.
Power's been up 100% around the clock every day since Aug. 15.
You hit time with very low wind, so wind generators produce only brid nests and, very high AC use.
OPTIMIZED power supply simply chocked. CA does not have backup power supply, as everything not green was slaughtered, or "optimized" for about 5% surplus in case of need and, adjacent states had their own power supply shortage, so they could not land electricity to CA.
Get a few nuclear power stations and be happy, CA.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
